WILL BECOME LAW

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18254, 24 November 1933, Page 7

WILL BECOME LAW

RESERVE BANK BILL OPPOSITION WANES “STUDY CIRCLE’S” VIEW (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Reserve, Bank Bill, having passed botli Houses, will become law after the Governor-General’s signature is attached. Although the Coalition members who desired an amendment of the conditions for the appointment of tho two chief executive officers of the uew institution are greatly disappointed over the Finance Minister’s* failure to discover any method of meeting their views, and some are extremely annoyed, there is a more general impression that the Act, as passed, is an acceptable measure, which will ’bring substantial advantages to the Dominion.

This view is held by Mr. C. H. Clinkard (Rotorua), who was associated with the Coalition group' concerned in securing the amendment. “I am not pursuing the controversy.” he' said to your correspondent. “The thing is closed, though since last December I had been making representations against the amount of shareholder influence in the Reserve Bank, considering that the State should hold a preponderant voice. We have failed to attain this objective, but the Act is so valuable and likclv to be so beneficial to the Dominion that I would not jeo pardise it for the sake of any alteration at this stage. Though desirous of seeing the State’s position stronger, I realise that there is another side which might consider that'in the present measure the State has more than it should have got." “CONFISCATION” OF GOLD LONDON PRESS CRITICISM BAIT OF £4,000,000 LONDON, Nov. 23. Commenting on what it describes as “an undesirable feature” of New Zealand’s Central Bank Bill, the Financial News says:—“Although there might have been some justification for commandeering the reserves of the domestic hanks in 1914, there certainly is none now. Firstly, it is extremely unusual and not a little discreditable for any Government to confiscate property belonging to foreign institutions, and the fact that the, New Zealand regulations may have been partly responsible for the ownership is neither here nor there. .Secondly, since the Government itself has taken a direct hand in depreciating the currency and has thereby diminished the value of the hanks’ net assets, the gold was.the banks.only protection, and any increase in value may be considered iu equity as belonging to them. “But the most important of all is the fact that, since 1914, there has been an embargo on the export of gold coin, so that for 19 years the banks have been compelled to keep a large part of their funds locked up, although their oblige tion to make payments in gold lias luvo suspended and gold has no relation to tho currency system. In those circumstances, it can scarcely be said what sort of asset the banks’ gold can be considered. It seems to be an ‘investment’ like anything else. To most people, it will be seen that these ingenious theories serve principally to cloak the fact that a windfall of a profit of nearly £4.0X0.000 in New Zealand currency has tempted the Treasury too much. Let that profit remain where it properly belongs.”